I've never been tested for Celiac or any gluten intolerance. Upon giving up wheat, I lost 20lbs in the first year after being stuck for the prior year at the same weight. Not too much changed about my diet, although I likely did start eating more protein. But I replaced the wheat products with rice and potatoes for the most part.

When I eat wheat products now, I get an almost instant headache and gain 5lbs that doesn't go away for 2-3 days. My son (nearly 3yo) hasn't had any testing but gets eczema whenever he has more than a few bites of a wheat product.

The issue is that it is circular. If someone hasn't been diagnosed with celiac, they're told that they should not give up gluten. But the reason they have not been diagnosed may be that their doctor may be behind the times or incompetent, or that they are asymptomatic, or that the tests give high numbers of false negatives, or they are non-celiac gluten intolerant.

Originally Posted by eKatherine

I recently read about a study done by a grade school girl as her science project. Having been diagnosed with celiac, she wanted to know how common it was. She went to the local clinic where they agreed to offer 133 free blood tests to upcoming patients who had not been tested. They expected to find one positive. They found 4, and all of them were asymptomatic.

I have to ask - what exactly do you mean by asymptomatic Celiac? The blood test for Celiac disease tests for antibodies against gliadin, and though it can be indicative of Celiac disease, a positive test for gliadin abs in the absence of symptoms is certainly not a positive test for Celiac disease. The only surefire test for Celiac is a biopsy of jejunum tissue. If you, eKatherine, went into the doctor and got screened for every single known histological disease marker, you would have an abnormally high value of something. The general population varies very widely from person to person, and a perfectly healthy person might have high values for several items which, in the presence of symptoms, would be a disease indicator.

So 4 of 133 people had abnormally high gliadin abs and no symptoms? That sounds pretty reasonable. The PSA screen for prostate cancer is discouraged for younger, asymptomatic men for this reason. Lots of men had positive PSA tests and had to undergo invasive and expensive tests and treatments for no reason. A gliadin ab blood test should be among the tools used to diagnose patients of Celiac disease, but it is certainly not true that anyone who doesn't have Celiac symptoms should get tested and be forced to undergo a massive lifestyle change for no reason. No one should give up precious, precious beer if they don't have to.

I think you have a problem with digestion of fat. Perhaps you can handle certain types better than others. Maybe you need to limit your overall fat intake.

So far I doubt it. I underwent a massive, massive diet change to a very extreme diet. We'll see how it goes. I haven't had diarrhea today!

I have to ask - what exactly do you mean by asymptomatic Celiac? The blood test for Celiac disease tests for antibodies against gliadin, and though it can be indicative of Celiac disease, a positive test for gliadin abs in the absence of symptoms is certainly not a positive test for Celiac disease. The only surefire test for Celiac is a biopsy of jejunum tissue. If you, eKatherine, went into the doctor and got screened for every single known histological disease marker, you would have an abnormally high value of something. The general population varies very widely from person to person, and a perfectly healthy person might have high values for several items which, in the presence of symptoms, would be a disease indicator.

Some doctors use the blood tests to diagnose celiac. Others insist on a biopsy, which many people cannot afford, not to mention that not everyone who has not been eating gluten recently is going to be willing to sacrifice their health for 3-6 months to get a diagnosis. Would you eat yourself sick to get a positive diagnosis of diabetes or heart disease?

There are still doctors who will refuse to give a diagnosis to someone who hasn't had the biopsy and tell them to eat gluten, as though somehow not being able to afford the test is somehow evidence that they should not give up gluten. Puhlease.

The tests have a very high false negatives and hardly any false positives. A positive result on any of them is taken as evidence of gluten intolerance and possibly celiac.

So 4 of 133 people had abnormally high gliadin abs and no symptoms? That sounds pretty reasonable. The PSA screen for prostate cancer is discouraged for younger, asymptomatic men for this reason. Lots of men had positive PSA tests and had to undergo invasive and expensive tests and treatments for no reason. A gliadin ab blood test should be among the tools used to diagnose patients of Celiac disease, but it is certainly not true that anyone who doesn't have Celiac symptoms should get tested and be forced to undergo a massive lifestyle change for no reason. No one should give up precious, precious beer if they don't have to.

The expected number was 1. They found 4. It's possible that this is a fluke. You could calculate the probability on that.

The Italian government would probably disagree with you that the chance that 4% of the population has active celiac is something that should be ignored and these people have nothing to lose by eating wheat. They do test every schoolchild for celiac.

Now that's how you carb binge. No real semblance of dieting, or even restraint. It was a non-primal carb and alcohol contest, and it was fierce. We took both of our mothers out to two different Mother's Day meals on Friday and Saturday. We drank tons of good beer, ate baskets of bread and seafood, and reveled in all the salty glory. We napped during the day, woke up and drank. It was summer, come early and hard.

I was 170.0 on Friday morning, and it was with great trepidation that I stepped onto the scale this morning. But my fears were unfounded - only 176.4. I've had much greater binge spikes in the past - this will all be gone by Wednesday. In addition, I somehow managed to parlay all those carbs into what I hope was a massively anabolic weekend. I had a decent squats session on Friday before a bread and pizza laden dinner at Macaroni Grill. Then on Saturday, after a seafood brunch (beer, bread, steamed seafood, ice cream, beer, Bloody Mary's, and beer) I slept for 2 hours and somehow managed to go downstairs and have a ruthless, half-drunken 60 minute weightlifting outburst. I did more squats - 'cause who needs rest days - then I did weighted dips and calf raises. But by then I was dehydrated, dripping, and half-mad with carb fever and decided to do weighted chins until my arms failed. When they failed I stripped the weight belt off and did chins until my arms failed again. Finally I did negatives until my arms were swollen and lifeless. Then I went back upstairs and napped more before a comically huge steak and eggs dinner. Oh, and more beer.

I expected Sunday to be full of aches and fatigue, but I woke up feeling good and managed to mow the lawn, weed, and mulch the gardens. After all the resting and digesting it felt good to sweat and stick my hands in the dirt. I must admit I'm glad to be back on steak and eggs. The gf and I agreed next weekend there will be no such debauchery. We have a July 1st date with the beach and we will be keeping it. She broke with her veganism after only six and a half days. Such is a miserable lifestyle. You know vegan food is lacking because they offer vegan mayonnaise and vegan cheese and vegan ham and turkey. No one tries to pass sausage in the guise of vegetables because animals taste better than plants. You can keep your tofurkeys and your arrowroot cheese. I'll take a dead, bleeding bird and some ground up pig, thank you very much.

So she's embarking on her own, less extreme diet of meat and greens. I'm sticking with steak and eggs, and probably not just 4 weeks. After one week I can say I still truly adore this diet and plan on sticking to it until I'm cleaning dryer lint from between my abs. I don't see why I can't stick with it all the way through June until July and beyond. Even prior to carb day my bowels righted themselves and I feel strong and sharp. I will eat my steak and eggs today and, to offset the weekend's calorie load, fast until Wednesday evening. That should put my house back in order. Thanks all for bearing with me through the Great Diarrhea Week. I'm back on my game and my posts should be less pouty and more primal. I plan on upping the volume for the duration. Meat, hunger, iron and sweat. Time to get to work.

Now that's how you carb binge. No real semblance of dieting, or even restraint. It was a non-primal carb and alcohol contest, and it was fierce. We took both of our mothers out to two different Mother's Day meals on Friday and Saturday. We drank tons of good beer, ate baskets of bread and seafood, and reveled in all the salty glory. We napped during the day, woke up and drank. It was summer, come early and hard.

I was 170.0 on Friday morning, and it was with great trepidation that I stepped onto the scale this morning. But my fears were unfounded - only 176.4. I've had much greater binge spikes in the past - this will all be gone by Wednesday. In addition, I somehow managed to parlay all those carbs into what I hope was a massively anabolic weekend. I had a decent squats session on Friday before a bread and pizza laden dinner at Macaroni Grill. Then on Saturday, after a seafood brunch (beer, bread, steamed seafood, ice cream, beer, Bloody Mary's, and beer) I slept for 2 hours and somehow managed to go downstairs and have a ruthless, half-drunken 60 minute weightlifting outburst. I did more squats - 'cause who needs rest days - then I did weighted dips and calf raises. But by then I was dehydrated, dripping, and half-mad with carb fever and decided to do weighted chins until my arms failed. When they failed I stripped the weight belt off and did chins until my arms failed again. Finally I did negatives until my arms were swollen and lifeless. Then I went back upstairs and napped more before a comically huge steak and eggs dinner. Oh, and more beer.

I expected Sunday to be full of aches and fatigue, but I woke up feeling good and managed to mow the lawn, weed, and mulch the gardens. Feel pretty good. All in all, I'm happy to be back on steak and eggs. The gf and I agreed next weekend there will be no such debauchery. We have a July 1st date with the beach and we will be keeping it. She broke with her veganism after only six and a half days. Such is a miserable lifestyle. You know vegan food is lacking because they offer vegan mayonnaise and vegan cheese and vegan ham and turkey. No one offers sausages in the shape of vegetables because animals taste better than plants.

So she's embarking on her own, less extreme diet of meat and greens. I'm sticking with steak and eggs, and probably not just 4 weeks. After one week I can say I still truly adore this diet and plan on sticking to it until I'm cleaning dryer lint from between my abs. I don't see why I can't stick with it all the way through June until July and beyond. Even prior to carb day my bowels righted themselves and I feel great in general. I will eat my steak and eggs today and, to offset the weekend's calorie load, fast until Wednesday evening. That should put my house back in order. Thanks all for bearing with me through the Great Diarrhea Week. I'm back on my game and my posts should be less pouty and more primal. I plan on upping the volume for the duration. Meat, hunger, iron and sweat. Time to get to work.

As usual, one of the most entertaining posts on the forum! Great to have you back from your weekend of debauchery, have a great week!

She broke with her veganism after only six and a half days. Such is a miserable lifestyle. You know vegan food is lacking because they offer vegan mayonnaise and vegan cheese and vegan ham and turkey. No one tries to pass sausage in the guise of vegetables because animals taste better than plants. You can keep your tofurkeys and your arrowroot cheese. I'll take a dead, bleeding bird and some ground up pig, thank you very much.
So she's embarking on her own, less extreme diet of meat and greens.

I weigh 174 this morning (was 170.2 last Friday before the unholy carbohydrategasm). This is to be expected - I should return to 170-171 tomorrow, based on previous experiences. Yesterday's supper was a 24 oz. sous vide sirloin and five fried eggs. I added far too much butter to the pan prior to frying the eggs and they ended up floating in a buttery bath. I poured some of it back over the plated meat and eggs, but the sight of all that butter made me uneasy.

I came down with a nasty headache midday and took the evening off from training. I'm fasting today so I'll just train double duty tomorrow evening. It's good to be back on the steak and eggs. Life is so much simpler that way.